Poll

Education

For the last three years, the fourth-grade Clinton Elementary School teacher has abandoned textbooks in three of the four main academic areas and adopted a student-driven approach.

By the numbers, her strategy appears to be working.

Salyer, who’s in her fourth year at Clinton Elementary, is the 2010 Celebrate Great Teaching award winner for Lancaster County School District. The accolade is the district’s highest honor for educators.

Dozens of students who didn’t get the supplies they needed when school began will soon get a helping hand.

United Way of Lancaster County recently held its second annual Stuff the Bus school drive in which residents donated papers, pencils, crayons and other school supplies to collection spots throughout the county.

Those supplies benefit children served through the Lancaster County Outreach Project, which provides resources for neglected and abused children.

Remaining supplies will go to other Lancaster County School District children in need.

A group of rising kindergarteners interacted with their teacher and mingled amongst themselves as if they had been around each other for months.

If there were jitters about starting school, they weren’t easy to detect. This group of youngsters appeared eager to be in the classroom.

The scene in Heather McManus’ kindergarten class at Indian Land Elementary School was one that was seen across the school district last week, as teachers wrapped up this year’s Countdown to Kindergarten program.

Hayden Lee shared his love for music through a recent drawing contest sponsored by Google, the popular Internet search engine.

Lee, a rising seventh-grader at Andrew Jackson Middle School, was a state finalist in this year’s Doodle 4 Google contest, which was open to kindergarten through 12th grade students across the United States.

The contest allows a student to put his or her own personal and artistic touch on the Google word logo. Student entries had to be submitted by late March and judging took place in May.

Johnesha Graham isn’t going to let a tuition increase get in the way of her degree.

Graham, 28, is just one of many students who will be paying higher tuition payments at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster this fall. The university recently announced a 6.5 percent increase in its tuition costs for the upcoming school year. Fees, including technology, science lab, matriculation and parking fees, have also increased.